OMAHA, Neb. - Senior Nick Musec nabbed his first win of the season as Creighton Baseball defeated Southern Illinois, 5-3, on Saturday, April 20.

Creighton moved to 21-9 with the win and 7-4 in Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) play. Southern Illinois, meanwhile, fell to 18-20 overall and 2-9 in the MVC.

Musec tied a career-high with five strikeouts while working 5.1 innings to improve to 1-4 on the season. He was followed by Mark Lukowski, Mark Winkelman and Bryan Sova as the Jays closed out the win in the ninth to earn his second save of the year.

The Salukis trailed 5-3 with runners at the corners and no outs in the ninth when Sova was called on to pitch. Troggio sacrificed the tying run, Welch, to second base. Jones followed with a liner that appeared to be in the gap in right-center, however senior Brennan Murphy came racing in for the catch and the second out. After an intentional walk to Montgomery, Sova got Ryan Casillas to fly out to right on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.

Musec escaped early damage by wiggling out of a bases-loaded jam in the first. After to allow hits to the first two, Musec struck out Jones, but gave up an RBI single and a walk to load the bases. Following a visit to the mound from head coach Ed Servais, the Missouri native induced another strikeout and a grounder to limit the damage to just one run.

Creighton responded with three runs, highlighted by a bases-loaded walk to Reagan Fowler and a two-run single from Lamb, in the home half of the first to quickly claim a 3-1 lead.

The Jays tacked on a run in the second inning on junior Federico Castagnini's sacrifice fly, and later extended the lead to 5-2 in the fifth inning on junior Mike Gerber's run-scoring single.

SIU's Derek Fogel fell to 0-2 with the loss, allowing five runs (four earned) before exiting with the bases loaded with one out in the fifth.

Creighton's offense was led by a 3-for-4 day at the plate by Gerber, while Castagnini , Kevin Lamb and Brennan Murphy each had two hits.